after a more or less quiet end to the last year and quite a bit of work on the bike and blog we are finally ready to exploreTasmania. First we head towards the National Park in the Gordon
River area and then towards the west coast and along gravel roads until we get to Marrawah where the rain and storm catches up with us. For a few days we take the offer of assylum from Mik and
stay at his place until we are able to ride on and keep our underwear dry at the same time

We drove along the northern coast and then all over the big Tasmanian island visiting an awful lot of National Parks along the way. It was a bit unfortunate that this was also the main bank
holiday time for Australia day and so all the cheap and free campsites where crowded to overflowing with Aussies and their extensive outdoorequipment..... The weather was typical for a
Tassie summer: 4 seasons in one day.

After 3 1/2 weeks we arrived back with our friends in Sandfly having accumulated a few more problems to solve

Paul has only very little time left to give us a hand withthe new problems on our bike - another leaky cylinder-head-gasket, 2 loose bolts in the engine, some dodgy kabels ... he has to join
his ship - the Aurora Australis. Before he sails off towards Antarctica however we recieve a guided tour on the ship. Then we manage to get some more of our paperwork sorted, the cooker repaired
and a bit more work on the blog done and have a few more days around the southern end of Tassie to cockle creek and Bruny island and we are back in Hobart in time for the
Wooden-Boat-Festival

We're back at Kerry's place and are still fighting with bike problems. For 2 weeks we try all sorts to find the fault and Andi - a friend of Paul and Kerry helps with expertise and even spare
parts but every time we have something fixedand make a test ride afterwards we end up with a dead bike on the roadside - but the day arrives where she purrs without missing a beat.....

Inbetween we visit a few more beautiful spots in the area and I manage to keep my promise - we leave Kerry with our blog written in both languages right up to the day and when we arrive on OZ we
just have to complete the last few days, upload the lot and for the first time since leaving home we will be right up to date.

Do I actually have to mention that leaving this place is one of the hardesd parts since leaving home too?